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Nicolas Appert discovered the ability to preserve food in bottles, much like way that wine is preserved. He put the food in glass jars, closed them off with a cork, and put the jars in boiling water.
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Edward Jenner developed a vaccine for smallpox. This was the first of a treatment for any disease, and it was obtained from a weaker version of cowpox.
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The Spanish government made a ten-year effort to carry smallpox vaccine to its territories. The Spanish Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition shows the first attempts to solve questions still important for the introduction of new immunizations--professionalization in public health, technology transfer, protection of research subjects, and evaluation of vaccine efficacy, safety, and cost.
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Proteins were discovered. Jöns Jacob Berzelius proposed that the C400H620N100O120P1S1 molecule be called a ‘protein’ in 1838.
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1865 (published): Gregor Mendel derived the laws of inheritance by studying pea plants. His work was rediscovered in 1900 by several scientists.
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Wilhelm Kühne used the term ‘enzyme’ to describe the process of fermentation. Fermentation was later used to describe chemical activity by living organisms, while enzymes describe nonliving substances (proteins) that catalyze chemical reactions.
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Alexander Fleming noticed that a culture of Staphylococcus contained a mold which was blue and green. This mold was dissipated the culture and discovered that it could kill diseases which were caused by bacteria.
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Avery demonstrates that DNA is the ‘transforming factor’ and is the material of genes. An integral part of the Avery-MacLeod-McCarty Experiments.
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The Avery-MacLeod-McCarty Experiment concluded that DNA, not protein, was the hereditary material of bacteria. The experiment can be cited as the beginning of molecular genetics.
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The Hershey-Chase Experiment confirmed that DNA was the genetic material. They performed experiments with bacteriophages show that DNA, not protein enter the host cells.
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Robert Briggs and Thomas J. King cloned northern leopard frogs. They did this by transplanting nuclei from embryonic blastula cells. [1981: Mice are successfully cloned]
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The discovery of DNA structure was made by James Watson and Francis Crick after they saw the first x-ray picture of DNA (1952- ‘Exposure 51’)
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The E. Coli bacteria is the first organism to be genetically engineered. Herb Boyer and Stanley Cohen collaborated together and used their similar experiments on enzymes and plasmids to develop recombinant DNA technology.
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Bacteriophage fX174, was the first genome to be sequenced by Fred Sanger. It is a viral genome with 5368 base pairs.
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Humulin, first drug produced by genetically engineered bacteria was human insulin. It is the first biotech drug appoved by the FDA.
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The first transgenic animal was a mouse created at the University of Pennsylvania. They transferred a gene from 1 animal to the embryo of another
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The polymerase chase reaction was developed by Kary Mullis. It is used in the study of genes for analysis and cloning.
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Calgene’s ‘Flavr Savr’ was a genetically modified tomato. It resisted ripening to maintain color and firmness.
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A project lasting 13 years (began funding in 1988) and coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The primary goal was to identify all the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA.
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The first 13 human embryonic stem cell lines were approved for use in NIH research. This comes after President Obama issued Executive Order 13505: Removing Barriers to Responsible Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells
